Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Sometimes You Should Look Up

I hear this, and immediately my inner monologue starts with "Penetrometer? Did he really say penetrometer?"** but nothing actually clicked over in my head. It's 15 seconds before I look up, by which time the show had moved on to two more boringly named gizmos for Saturn curious satelites. However, that word may live with me forever, or at least until I can legitimately use it in a complete sentence.

And while I'm pondering this, a blurb for their "Space Week" programming comes up and the narrator talks about the medical manual on the Space Station. It's very complete. It has a protocol for an astronaut experiencing psychosis. You duct tape them to something sturdy.

Yes, duct tape. "Saving Lives Since 1942."

**it's a metal stick with a cone shaped tip for testing soil. They showed it later, and, yes, it DOES look like it could do that thing you thought of as soon as you heard the word. EXACTLY.